Name: Nancy Green “Aunt Jemima”
Made by and When: Unknown artist, ca. late 1970s-1980s
Material: Bisque head, hands, and shoes; stuffed cloth body
Marks: Unmarked
Height: 16 inches
Hair, Eyes, Mouth: A headscarf covers the head. The eyes are painted black. The wide smile exposes individual teeth. The lips are painted red.
Clothes: Wears a multicolored plaid dress, a white apron, white pantalettes, and sculpted black shoes.
Other: This doll represents Nancy Green (1834-1923), the African American woman who became the face of R. T. Milling Company’s Aunt Jemima products, which were named after a minstrel show. Green, born enslaved, is known as “one of the first African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark” (Nancy Green).
“In June 2021, PepsiCo, the owner of Pearl Milling Company, rebranded the Aunt Jemima brand to Pearl Milling Company. The company announced the change in June 2020, following protests against systemic racism and police brutality in the U.S. that summer. PepsiCo said the brand and image did not reflect their core values and that they wanted to remove racial stereotypes. The company also committed to a $1 million initiative to support Black women and girls.” (This is an AI-generated response to the question, When did Pearl Milling stop using the Aunt Jemima brand?)
Gallery (Photographs courtesy of David Spurgeon)
_________
Your comments are valued. Donations aid the initiative to preserve Black-doll history.
If you subscribe to DeeBeeGee’s Virtual Black Doll Museum
by email, click the post title of the email, which links to the website to view all text and associated media. Please “like” and share this installation with your social media contacts. If you’d like to subscribe, add your email address to the subscribe or sign-up field in the footer or right sidebar. Add your email address to the subscribe or sign-up field in the footer or right sidebar.
Search for specific dolls or specific doll categories, e.g. “antique dolls” using the search field at the website.